The whole thing began with an announcement slide in church. “Children’s Ministry needs workers: 3’s room,” it read. “I love preschoolers!” I innocently thought and proceeded to volunteer myself to fill that vacancy at once.
Now, three weeks into my commitment to shepherd the three year olds at church I have realized that I know very, very little about how to spiritually shepherd preschoolers. Older kids I get. But my adorable preschool class? I can barely get them to sit through a short Bible story, let alone share our hearts and invite God in. They’re more concerned about me sharing fishy crackers with them.
Last Sunday, reeling from my utter lack of adequate preparation for week one, I came in with a more robust plan for controlling the chaos. (By the way, did you know that once you get six or more preschoolers together it feels like there are at least twenty of them?) I was armed with supplies for crafting “sneaky snakes” that would correlate with our teaching about Adam and Eve’s decision in the Garden. They put together their snakes then we sat, crisscross-applesauce, in a circle to listen to the Bible reading. Only two minutes into the story one of the girls got up and insisted on returning a rogue crayon to its bin. And then one of the boys barrel rolled himself under a nearby table. And the whole thing just fell apart.
Wanting to recover the time and get everyone back on track, my co-worker doled out the water-filled Dixie cups and fishy crackers as I tried to chat with the kids about the story. Did any of them pick up anything? I mined the group for any evidence of learning and an anecdote came to mind just in the knick of time.
“I don’t know if you all know this, but I have a son. He’s only one year old, so he’s next door in the nursery right now. Well, my son loves to play in his room. He will say, ‘Play! Play!’ all the time because he loves playing in his room so much. And he has so many toys and books in his room. But there’s one spot in his room that I don’t want him to touch. There’s a bookshelf that has some older books on it. I tell him that he can play with anything in his room, but not the things on that one bookshelf. And what do you think he wants to touch all the time? The books he’s not supposed to, even though there are many other books and toys for him. Doesn’t that sound like Adam and Eve in the Garden?”
As the kids weighed in with their own experiences—including many assertions that they never ever touch what they’re not supposed to—I was struck by the gravitas of the role of the Christian educator. Those who do the work of teaching and preaching, regardless of the age of their audience, are tasked with taking this ancient, sacred document and connecting it with experiences that help us understand its relevance for our lives today. We’re like tour guides, walking through God’s world and pointing out how this or that connects with the truth of God’s word. It’s not an easy task, but boy is it necessary!
I’m comforted to know that we are not at all helpless in this endeavor. Guided by the Holy Spirit and leaning on Him to work in the hearts of our hearers, we can confidently teach the Scriptures and trust that the requisite heart work is being done. I was reminded of this as the parents picked up their kids on Sunday morning. As the preschoolers bounded into their parents’ arms, sneaky snakes in tow, I mentioned to the parents that we made the snakes to correlate with our discussion of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve’s poor choice. “Huh, that’s funny,” Amelia’s dad said, “She was just asking me this morning, totally out of the blue, what snakes eat.” Reflecting on the morning, I did remember Amelia being unusually attentive.
My hope and prayer is that God will continue to go before me, will prepare the hearts of the preschoolers for what He would teach them from His word, and that in doing so he would be laying the foundation for them to walk with Him for a lifetime. I also pray, for myself and all of the “tour guides” out there, that we would competently and humbly connect the dots between Bible and life for all who have ears to hear, however tiny they might be.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.